STRUGGLE ON WALLS

‘We Want Freedom’, ‘Azaadi’, ‘Go India Go’. These are some of the slogans which are sketched out on many walls of Kashmir. Using spray bottle paints, no one knows who sketches these slogans. To demand freedom, to protest, people of valley are using every way.

This graffiti is sketched on a pillar of Foot Bridge at Lal Chowk. The pillar also reads out “we take pride in bridging the gap” but just some centimeters below it, someone has wrote ‘Azaadi’ and two posters of a famous rebel leader of valley, Shaheed Maqbool Bhat.

STRUGGLE ON WALLS:‘AZAADI’ sketched on a pillar which also reads out “WE TAKE PRIDE IN BRIDGING THE GAP” and two posters of ‘Shaheed Maqbool Bhat’

Maqbool belongs to a village, Trehgam, Kupwara, he was founding member of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front. JKLF is an armed rebel group which took over arms in 1994 and joined the political pro-freedom leadership of valley.

While the authorities strictly face any kind of protests in valley but this protest continues. It sends message to everyone without any violence. No one gets hurt. No one has to use tear gas canisters or rubber bullets.

However, at many places authorities paint black or white over this graffiti art. The sentiment among youth, mostly is brewing stronger as they have been restricted within four walls of their houses.

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The Kashmir Walla is a multimedia platform of politics, culture, business and literature. We support and help initiate conversations around these themes with an aim to question the traditional mindsets, mainstream discourses and entrenched positions.